Amid trade tensions, US set to oust China as Malaysia’s top trading partner

KUALA LUMPUR — The United States is set to surpass China as Malaysia’s top investor despite increasing trade tensions between the two superpowers.

US manufacturing investments has tripled from last year while Malaysia were unable to capture investments from firms outside of China fleeing the trade war between the two nations.

Malaysia is an economy with relatively high dependence on trade. With the on-going trade tension, US firms are looking elsewhere for a substitutes on Chinese goods. The country is one of the regional exporter to stand benefit on this tariff war.

This makes the country a great place to receive foreign direct investments in terms of cost, infrastructure and manufacturing ecosystem.

The tariff war between the US and China remained high after US President Donald Trump imposed another 10% tax imports starting September 1.